Anti-Aging Night Concentrate ($19.99/1.7 ounces) has a high concentration of silicones, which help make skin feel silky-smooth, but silicones don’t have an impact on the skin’s firmness or elasticity, they just make skin feel good. This serum works well as a lightweight moisturizer for all skin types, and it contains lots of antioxidants, although not in impressive proportions. Still, the packaging will keep them stable and there are several skin-identical ingredients to keep normal to slightly oily skin hydrated without feeling greasy.

Strengths: Great cleansers, toners, and moisturizers that meet or exceed basic expectations while offering more for skin than just aloe; some OK masks and specialty products; almost every category of makeup has winning products to consider.

Weaknesses: Several products contain irritating essential oils, including peppermint. No products to effectively address the needs of those with blemish-prone skin; overpriced anti-aging products with mundane formulas; only one sunscreen and it contains an irritating citrus oil; lip gloss with wintergreen; lackluster to poor concealers and powder.

 Perfect Life Plus Boosting Serum ($60.00/1 ounce) has more of a lotion than serum texture, and doesn’t contain a single ingredient to justify its high price. Sweet almond seed extract is not a key anti-aging ingredient. The mix of plant extracts in this water-based serum is a balance of pros and cons, but there isn’t enough of any of them to warrant praise or concern.

 Water-Resistant Mechanical Brow Definer ($13) has been through some positive changes and is now recommended for its smooth, non-stiff application and convenient built-in brush for brow grooming. This automatic pencil is not retractable, so don’t wind up more than you need. Only two shades are available, workable for blonde to light brown brows. Those with medium brown, auburn, or black brows will have to shop elsewhere!

Strengths: A good selection of well-priced, effective AHA products utilizing glycolic acid; also excels with skin-lightening and retinol products; a small but workable selection of cleansers; Alpha Hydrox is one of the only companies selling AHA products that is forthcoming about AHA percentage and pH level (both critical to ensuring you’re getting an effective exfoliant).

Weaknesses: Problematic sunscreens and a couple of moisturizers with oxygenating ingredients; reliance on jar packaging for some products with antioxidants.

 Intensive AHA Revitalizing Peel ($15.99/6 masks) steeps a 14% solution of glycolic acid onto face-shaped cloth masks. The pH of 3.7 ensures exfoliation, but you’re better off using a leave-on AHA product rather than something like this that has short-term contact with skin. Alpha Hydrox did add a few bells and whistles to this formula, and it’s fine for occasional use—but for best results, use it in tandem with a leave-on AHA product.

 Oxygenated Moisturizer ($14.99/2 ounces) claims to oxygenate skin while stimulating collagen production, but providing oxygen to intact, otherwise healthy skin is detrimental because it causes free-radical damage (Source: Aging Cell, June 2007, pages 361–370; Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences, September 2007, pages 2181–2196; and Human and Experimental Toxicology, February 2002, pages 61–62). Alpha Hydrox used peroxidized corn oil in the form of TriOxygen-C, a patented ingredient that is also used in the Neoteric line for treating diabetic skin ulcers (Neoteric is the parent company of Alpha Hydrox). Although this ingredient’s function is beneficial for supplying oxygen and promoting healing of ulcers, the physiological process that skin enacts to heal wounds is vastly different from treating wrinkles or supplying oxygen to non-wounded skin. Both repeated use of any peroxidized substance and delivering extra oxygen to skin are damaging (Sources: Journal of Reconstructive Microsurgery, May 2007, pages 225–230; Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, May 2007, pages 1980–1981; and Cell Tissue Bank, 2000, volume 1, issue 4, pages 261–269).

 Foaming Face Wash ($6.99/6 ounces) is similar to but slightly more basic than the Facial Moisturizing Cleanser. It is water-soluble with a slight foaming action. Expect this to do a sufficient job removing makeup and consider it recommended for all skin types except very oily. Foaming Face Wash is also fragrance-free.

Strengths: Many state-of-the-art moisturizers, though they’re not without their issues; Lauder’s formulary expertise in the moisturizer category at a lower price point than most other Lauder-owned lines; good foundations without sunscreen; good powders; excellent powder blush; several lip-enhancing options, including a remarkable long-wearing lip paint.

Weaknesses: Problematic toners, lackluster scrub, sunscreens whose UVA-protecting ingredients are present but at questionable amounts. No skin-lightening, AHA, BHA, or effective anti-acne products; jar packaging; foundations and lipsticks with sunscreen that lacks sufficient UVA protection; poor concealer.

Super Plush 10-Hour Lipcolor ($16.50) is American Beauty’s version of Estee Lauder’s Double Wear Stay-in-Place Lip Duo and M.A.C.’s Pro Longwear Lipcolour. All of these include a lip color “paint” and glossy top coat packaged in a dual-sided slim component. You apply the lip color, allow one minute for it to dry, then apply the glossy top coat, which ensures comfortable wear. As with the Lauder and M.A.C. versions, the lip color applies smoothly (many of the shades go on opaque and most have some degree of shimmer) and feels drier as it sets. The silicone-based top coat adds a beautiful sheen without feeling slick, sticky, or greasy and the duo wears beautifully. Mine stayed on through coffee, lunch, and a late afternoon snack. As expected, the eventual color fading began at the inner portion of the lips and moved outward. The only drawback to American Beauty’s option is that you may find yourself applying the top coat more often than others due to its thinner texture.